I Love Luging and Lake Lucerne! (but have some concerns about Texas)

by Leah

Last weekend, Jacob and I drove an hour southeast of Basel to Lucerne, a beautiful lake city, with preserved medieval architecture. I hope to spend some time here one day, but not this trip. We pick up Tai and her nine year-old son Thilo at the train station and head for the mountains.

My phone insists we can drive to the top of Mount Pilatus and to Fräkmüntegg, Switzerland’s longest luge. Very quickly it becomes clear that this is not the case. But we are flexible and lucky. We stop at a nearby gondola, where an older man tells Tai that he has a great idea for us: we should take the gondola to Fräkmüntegg. Up we go!

We hike from the gondola stop at Alpgschwänd, where men are yodelling as they drink beer at an outdoor restaurant, past many goats and cows, decline the Alpkase (fresh cheese) and to the start of the luge at Fräkmüntegg.

I’ll admit to being scared. We get instructions from a young man at the top. There are not many instructions. Down we go!

And we love it! As soon as we get down we want to go again.

Tai and I talk politics, as we always do. We chatted about the separation we feel from America’s political fireworks in “neutral” Switzerland and our resistance to that separation. Tai felt she should be home for the Black Lives Matter movement. I feel like I should be home following the Supreme Court’s decision not to block the Texas abortion law.

I finally read the text of the law this week and — pivoting from travel blog mode here — I have all the concerns you would expect from someone who is pro choice. But this law adds new worries. The level of public intrusiveness is astonishing. Anyone can file a lawsuit against someone who provides or aids and abets the provision of an abortion. There are none of the limitations (e.g., standing and damages) that create some boundaries around civil litigation. The only limitation I see is that a person who impregnated the abortion patient through rape, incest or sexual assault cannot sue. Anybody else in that particular situation can sue, but not that guy. Thoughtful Texas legislators; really thoughtful.

As an advocate for health care providers, I also really worry about the doctor-patient relationship. Among women who get an abortion, 13% cite the health of the fetus and 12% cite concerns about their own health as a reason for the abortion. Is a doctor who counsels a woman on those health concerns now aiding and abetting a future abortion? Is Texas allowing any Joe Shmo to sue a doctor for having that conversation?

So here I am in Switzerland wondering how I can help. And luging. Following our two runs down the mountain, we have lunch (Rösti) and hike back to the gondola. Boys, with fewer political worries, roll part of the way down.

And boy moms get a piece of that joy.